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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27565726">The Most Important Lesson I'll Ever Teach You</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polyhexian/pseuds/Polyhexian'>Polyhexian</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Beast Wars Uprising</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, POV Third Person, animal cruelty, questionable parenting, this is some dystopic shit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:01:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,178</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27565726</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polyhexian/pseuds/Polyhexian</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Autobot and Administrator of the Games Eject adopts a Maximal protoform, Lio Convoy. He's planning to raise him as an insurance policy to secure his political power for years to come. He's not supposed to care about him. It's been a long time since he cared about much of anything.</p><p>Easier said than done.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eject &amp; Lio Convoy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Most Important Lesson I'll Ever Teach You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Eject tilted his helm forward slightly to rest his chin on his carded hands, elbows set on his desk. On the floor, Lio Convoy was still playing with the puzzle he'd given him. </p><p>The little Maximal was still new. He'd been just a protoform only a few months prior. He was still growing, armour forming and shape settling. He couldn't even transform yet, hadn't developed an altmode. He was so young. Small, and fresh and innocent and naive to the world and how it worked.</p><p>Lio Convoy grinned as he completed the puzzle. Colourful and simple, it was based on the inside of a standard Cybertronian cranium, designed to teach him the quickest and most efficient way to break through and crush a brain unit. He would learn that later, though. Not today.</p><p>"Good job," Eject told him, and Lio Convoy looked immensely pleased. Eject let his arms fall and stood up from his chair. Lio Convoy snapped his head up, clearly surprised. Eject expended the amount of fuel required to stand and move very rarely. He pressed the comm button on his desk. "Starsteel. Please bring it in."</p><p>Eject circled his desk and kneeled down in front of his young charge, who looked up at him with his big, innocent, curious optics. The door to his office opened and his Predacon secretary entered, holding a small cage. She set it down beside him, bowed, and then silently retreated back out of the room. The doors shut behind her.</p><p>Eject crossed his legs and pulled the cage into his lap, opened the front door and pulling the young turbofox within out and into his hands. He set the cage aside again, the animal yawning sleepily in his hold, having been awoken from its nap.</p><p>"Oh!" cried Lio Convoy, clearly enamored with the kit already. </p><p>"Would you like to hold it?" Eject asked.</p><p>"Please, Administrator, sir?" Lio Convoy pleaded, clutching his little hands together. Eject felt a shiver go up his spine. He trusted him too much.</p><p>"Lio," Eject said, "Do you remember what I told you?"</p><p>"That I only have to call you that when other people are around," Lio Convoy answered, "I can just call you Eject when it's just us."</p><p>"Right!" Eject nodded, "You're different than the rest of them, slugger, don't forget that."</p><p>Lio Convoy nodded, though he clearly didn't understand more than the words. Eject held out the turbofox kit toward him.</p><p>It wagged its tail happily, yipping as Lio Convoy took it in both hands and pulled it against his chest. It licked his face as the little Maximal giggled and scrambled to his feet, letting the animal drop down to its paws on the ground. He laughed, taking a step back as the animal jumped after him, and soon enough, they were chasing each other around the room, giddy and carefree.</p><p>Eject let him have his fun while he could. Time stretched out long and low and he watched them in silence longer than he'd meant to, longer than he should have. Lio Convoy's giggles filled the room and he resisted the urge to save a recording. </p><p>"Lio Convoy," Eject said hoarsely, and his charge stopped, panting, too look across the room at him, "Today I'm going to teach you the most important lesson I ever will. Do you understand?"</p><p>Lio Convoy blinked. "What lesson?"</p><p>"Turbo," Eject said, swallowing, "Attack."</p><p>For one brief moment, Lio Convoy looked back at him, confused, and then the next he cried out in pain as the Turbofox grabbed his leg in its jaws and shook, knocking him to the ground. </p><p>Lio Convoy clawed at the carpet, trying to scramble away, but the animal was relentless. That's how he'd had it trained, after all. The beast bit down on his leg again, hard, so hard the plating crumpled and energon welled up from the wound. Eject resisted the urge to look away. He knew he didn't have the right.</p><p>"Administrator!" Lio Convoy cried, turning his head toward him, wide eyes terrified. The ancient Builder was silent. "Eject! Help me!" Lio Convoy begged again, lubricant welling up in the corners of his optics.</p><p>Eject trembled despite himself, and hoped Lio Convoy had not noticed. "I can't, Lio. You have to help yourself."</p><p>"I can't! It hurts!" Lio Convoy managed to yank his leg away and had only managed to get onto his knees when the Turbofox leapt on his back and his chest hit the floor. </p><p>"This is the lesson, Lio," Eject said, keeping his voice as cool and calm as he could, "This world you have been born into is cruel. It is unfair. It is heartless. It is hopeless."</p><p>"Please tell it to stop!"</p><p>"You can't trust <em> anyone</em>, Lio," Eject continued, "No matter how nice, or innocent, or friendly they seem. You can't trust the Maximals, the builders, not even me. The only person who will ever care about you, Lio, is you."</p><p>Lio Convoy managed to roll over and get an arm in front of his face that the animal clamped its jaws around, digging its teeth into the plating. "What does that have to do with anything!?"</p><p>"Don't get attached, Lio," Eject told him, "If you want to survive in this world, you will need to be prepared to step on people before they step on you. You will have to kill people before they can kill you. Mercy will kill you, Lio. You have a soft, kind spark," he said, as the Turbofox clawed at Lio Convoy's throat, "And you need to learn to be cruel or you will <em> die.</em>" </p><p>Lio Convoy finally kicked the Turbofox kit in the stomach and away from him, scrambling back to his pedes as the animal righted itself and ran back for more. This time Lio Convoy drew his staff and hit the Turbofox like a baseball, hard enough that it yelped and whined and hit the floor.</p><p>Lio Convoy did not stop. He drew his staff up above his head, two-handed, and then brought it down into the beast again, and again, and again, screaming and sobbing as he did so. </p><p>Lio Convoy did not stop until the animal was completely motionless and his entire chassis was streaked with bright pink energon, frame trembling, chest heaving, vocalizer spitting soft, frightened noises sporadically. Lio Convoy collapsed to his knees, biting back tears, and Eject stood, optics dull. He crossed the room and silently picked the Maximal up in his arms as he went limp, dropping his staff. Eject tucked his face against his chest and soothed him gently.</p><p>"Shh, shh, it's alright, you're done. That's all for today," he murmured, "You did a good job. I'm proud of you."</p><p>Lio Convoy continued to tremble, but his noises had stopped. He knew better than to cry if he could help it.</p><p>"You are not going to live a happy life, Lio," Eject told him softly, and said to hell with the energon, and rocked him back and forth soothingly, "But you're going to live a life, at least."</p>
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